Minutes: Friends of Egerton Ryerson Meeting June 7th, 2026
Chair: Rose Dyson
Recorder: Oskar Hanson
Attending: Ronald Stagg, Oskar Hanson, Wendy Ryerson, Rose Dyson, Lynn McDonald, George Hume, Gord McNulty, Len Fortune, Garry Tate, Bruce Weber, Mark Slemon, Keith Hoilett, Gordon Henderson, Ellen Allen, Robin Collins (joined late)
Regrets: Betty Trott, John Parker, Suzanne Hill.
Previous Minutes: Moved by Lynn and approved by Ron.
Treasurer’s Report: Oskar reported that we have $1,340 in the bank account.
1. Outreach: Board looking for a new chair for the outreach committee, with no one able to step forward as of now, we have tabled discussion until the next meeting. In addition we discussed the need for someone from the group to manage the social media accounts fulltime, as it is too expensive to pay for. The plan is for Janice to handle the occasional post for the time being.
2. Plaque Removal Petition: Ron reported a total of 375 signatures to the change dot org petition https://c.org/y49b9TttP7 “Help Restore The Reputation of Egerton Ryerson”. It took 1 week to get to 275 and 3 weeks to get to the current number, so the rate is slowing down. The current goal is to reach 400 signatures and then Ron will reach out to Michael Forbes to explain that this is not good for the TMU brand to have a couple of people holding up what hundreds of people want. Gordon offered to help follow up with John Parker to request CIHE send out the petition in its newsletter. Wendy mentioned trying again to get the Ryerson family group facebook page to share the petition.
3. Access to Information Request: Rose was directed by the ministry to follow up with TMU with regards to location of the head and if there is no response within 30 days then a complaint can be filed. However, we may have lost the original letter and may need to start the process again.
4. Expedition Results to locate head of statue and ad in Two Row times: Lynn, Bruce and Len reported on their trip to Caledonia to try and locate the head or find any information on its location. They went to 1492 Land Back Lane and found nothing except one person living there who had no relevant information. Len talked with a number of people and the result was putting an advertisement into the Two Row times community newspaper. The plan is to run another copy of the ad this time specifically offering $1,000 cash reward.
5. Arts and Letters club and (another) letter to Dr. Lachemi: It has come to our attention that the second time the play of The Trial of Egerton Ryerson was staged that one or two of the servers walked out and refused to work that night. An idea was proposed to play the video of the play during the upcoming open doors event and a staff member said they would organize a staff walkout if the play was shown. Gordon offered to have a (non combative) information session with the staff member (possibly a student at TMU) and was told by the President to leave it be.
6. Credit River – Bicentennial of September 16th 1826: Bruce, Lynn and Gordon looked for a spot near the credit river where we can hold an event to mark the bicentennial of Ryerson’s arrival at the Credit Mission. Right on the banks of the credit river there is a plaque up https://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_PQR/Plaque_Peel10.html where the old Government House Inn used to be. There is a Library and Concert Shell nearby and Wendy is going to do some more looking into this to see if for example we need a permit to hold an event in Memorial Park. It was suggested that we ask Peter Wyatt to help put the event on and Gordon says he can help with the writing. It was also suggested we look into putting a dedication to Egerton Ryerson on one of the park benches. The date we are looking to hold the event is Saturday September 19th, 2026.
7. Summer Potluck: It was decided to hold the potluck at Wendy’s place, which is 1 block from the subway in Etobicoke, on Saturday August 8th, 2026.
Next meeting: Sunday July 12th, 2026, 4pm.
Key Dates Summary: Next Zoom meeting July 12th, Potluck at Wendy’s August 8th, Credit River September 19th.